Emerging Nurse Leader

A leadership development blog

Mandated Nurse Staffing Ratios

by

Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN Like many of you, I watch the news about the push for mandated staffing ratios. Nurse advocates confidently tell legislators that with 5.2 licensed nurses (if that number is even accurate), there are more than enough nurses to staff the US health system. The only reason they are not working in acute care is because of poor work … [Read more...]

Knowing What You Can and Can’t Control

by

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC Nurses love to be in control, as do their leaders. But right now, you have less control than you want. Consider the story a manager told us on a recent webinar, "I used to think that if I were a great manager, no one would ever want to leave my unit. I have seriously lowered my expectations about this over the past two years. One of my … [Read more...]

Managing Time and Attendance Challenges

by

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN Much of the nursing workforce continues to report feelings of exhaustion and burnout. Nurse well-being is a high priority for health systems and the nurses working in them. Due to the turbulence in healthcare environments, managing staff time and attendance issues has never been more challenging for nurse leaders. Nurses are in the … [Read more...]

Helping Nurses with Communication Skills

by

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC I had a mentor who often said that the "soft skills" are often the "hard skills" to master.  Communication is undoubtedly at the top of that hard skills list.  Poor communication skills in healthcare environments can lead to medical errors, fragmented care, poor team coordination, and incivility. They also lead to patient/family … [Read more...]

Rebuilding a Toxic Culture

by

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN Over the years, many new nurse leaders have talked with me about assuming leadership of a team with a very toxic culture. Their questions range from - How do I get started? to What is a realistic turnaround timeframe?  One thing they collectively agreed on is that cultural change is the hard stuff of leadership. Last week, I … [Read more...]